MRSP stage Dharna at Zila Parishad in Pune

Published: Sunday, November 16, 2008, 14:32 [IST]

Subscribe to Oneindia News

Thane, Nov 16: Thousands of teaching and non teaching staffs of various schools in Thane, Raigad, Ratnagiri and Sindhudurgh district, staged Dharna at the Zila Parishad (ZP) offices to press for their long standing demands.

The day-long dharna here, organised by Maharashtra Rajya Shikshak Parishad(MRSP) on Saturday, Nov 15, was led by MLC Ramnath Mothe and Sanjay Kelkar primarily to demand implementation of the Chiplunkar Committee recommendations on non teaching staff.

Speaking to mediapersons they said a memorandum listing their various demands was earlier submitted to School Education Minister Vasant Purke to no avail, hence the dharna.

They said the government had not made non teaching staffs appointment or promotions since the last seven years.

They also demanded change in state government's policy of December 24, 2001, wherein schools that were not approved before this date were declared permanently unaided. However, some schools which were approved prior were also considered as unaided, which was creating difficulty in conducting the institution, they pointed out.

Mr Mothe and Mr Kelkar said since 2003-04 the state government had stopped giving any assistance other than the wage grant, forcing schools to incur other expenses, that need government support. If this continues further then some of the schools were sure to close down thus adversely affecting the education in the state, they pointed out.

To cap it all the students of unaided sections of the schools were not provides meals, causing discontent among the students.

They said it was high time the government paid more attention to the needs of the schools to improve the standard of education.